You and Me? Inevitable
by perksofbeingademigodtribute
Summary: AU where Liam and Ruby meet during their last week of the summer in Virginia Beach. Based off of Liam's story at the end of book one.


Ruby sighed as she walked through the soft sand of Virginia beach. She loved this place to death; almost as much as she loved her grandmother, but it was her last day there.

Her headphones blasted Panic! At The Disco's "This is Gospel" into her ears so she could drown out all of the background noise and just relish the amazing ness that is Virginia beach. Her green sundress swayed in the soft breeze coming from the water, her hair flying around in her face as well. Everything was perfect for a last day at the beach until she felt a volleyball hit her right in the forehead.

The force wasn't much, and she would usually just shrug it off, but because it was so unexpected she fell back into the sand, clutching her forehead. Next thing she knew there was this tall blond kid with blue eyes leaning over her and saying something that she couldn't hear. After a few moments of watching him speak She finally pulled out her headphones so she could hear him babbling on about a volleyball game. As he rambled Ruby didn't focus so much on his words, but instead his accent. He had a southern drawl to his words that already made her want to listen to him talk for hours and hours, "-could I make it up to you? I'll bring you to my favorite ice cream place down here?" She heard as she finally tuned into his words.

"Oh, um.. Sure I guess. But today's my last day down here. School starts soon." She said with a sigh and sat up, brushing out her hair and dress to rid of any sand lurking around.

"That's alright darlin', it's my last day, too. Why don't we just go right now?" He suggested and offered his hand to help her stand.

She eyed his hand warily and stood up on her own, "I swear to god it's not you I'm a germ freak.." She tried to defend herself. She really was germaphobic, and hated touching other people. Usually she didn't care much of people got offended when she didn't shake hands or anything but right now she felt like she had to defend herself. She didn't want him to lose interest.

"Um I'm up for like fist bumps and stuff like that but the palm of your hands have so many germs.." She mumbled and looked at her own hands, sighing, "you must think I'm either a freak or a bitch for not taking your hand and rambling on about it for a while.. Okay I'll stop."

The boy just waited for her to finish, then all he said was. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable there, darlin'. My name's Liam, by the way. You could call me Lee, or Liam, whatever you want."

"I-I'm Ruby." She said with a small smile on her lips.

"Hello there, Ruby, how about that ice cream?" Liam said, his white teeth glistening as he smiled.

Ruby nodded and followed Liam as he started walking towards the boardwalk, where there were multiple ice cream vendors.

Liam bought himself a mint chocolate chip cone, and just vanilla for Ruby. Once they had their ice creams they stood at the end of the pier, looking out over the waves.

"So, tell me about yourself, Ruby." Liam said and looked over at her.

"Well I'm sixteen.. I'm about to go into my junior year.. I actually work at an ice cream store back in Salem."

Liam nodded as she talked, "I'm a freshman." He said and her head snapped towards him.

"Freshman as in high school?" She asked, her eyes wide.

Liam chuckled and shook his head, "Oh god no, freshman as in college. I'm in Wilmington, part time worker at my stepfather's repair shop, full time college student. I'm eighteen."

Ruby sighed in relief. Sure, the age difference would have been the same, but it would have been awkward if she was older than him. "Where do you go?" She asked him, curious.

"Um, it's kinda pretentious and I feel like you'll punch me if I say it." He said, cringing.

"Oh just tell me." She smiled, "I mean I've always wanted to go to MIT since third grade, really. It can't be that bad."

"Well um it might be Harvard?" He said, cringing slightly.

"Really? That's amazing! What are you trying to become? A lawyer? Doctor?"

"Law." He said, "I'm going to have to memorize so many laws and random documents."

"You mean you're not actually from Legally Blonde?" Ruby teased, grinning over her ice cream.

"Har-har. Very funny." He said, but he was grinning down at her. "Hey do you have hand sanitizer?" He asked her, to which she blushed slightly.

"Um, yeah, why?" She asked. She always kept a little thing of hand sanitizer with her, just in case.

"Well, you hate germs, right? Well what if I sanitized my hands, would you let me hold yours?" He asked with a small smile. His eyes were so big and blue and his smile was so big and white and she nodded numbly, digging through her tote bag to find her hand sanitizer, which she handed to him.

"How much do you want me to use?" He asked her, wanting to make sure he used enough, but also not too much. He didn't want to blow things with Ruby.

"Oh, um, here." Ruby said and squirted some hand sanitizer on his hand for him, "Thank you by the way."

"For what?" Liam asked as he rubbed in the hand sanitizer.

"Well for actually going out of your way to make me feel comfortable even through we barely know each other."

"Well, darlin', back where I come from we have this thing called southern hospitality." Liam grinned and took her hand. His was much bigger and her fingers fit nicely in the spaces between his.

"Is hitting girls in the face with volleyballs part of southern hospitality?" Ruby asked with a small smirk playing on her face, to which Liam rolled his eyes.

"That, my friend, is a little thing called an accident, which I have already apologized for approximately five times. Although if I didn't hit you in the face we wouldn't be here right now. And I mean I'm having fun, are you? Be honest." He had finished his cone earlier and scratched the back of his neck.

Ruby nodded and smiled, but then her phone buzzed in her pocket. "I am, but my parents just texted me saying I have to go soon. You could text me some time?" She went to the contact section of her phone, clicking new contact. She handed the phone over to Liam, letting him add his number to his phone.

"So just text me so I can add you to my contacts, too." Liam said, handing her back her phone. He set his name as "Liam Stewart aka that hottie from the beach." He smiled at her, "Hey I'll walk you back to your place if you want." He suggested, taking her hand again.

"Oh, sure, thanks." Ruby said with a smile and started walking to her grandmother's house, where she had been staying for the past week. Liam walked with her and held her hand. They talked about random things like their favorite color, and Liam's older brother Cole, and his little half sister Claire, and how one time Cole tried to shove his head in a pencil sharpener. Ruby was laughing so hard by the way they got to her grandmother's house that she had to lean against him to stand. Liam's arm was around her waist as she stopped walking and looked up at him, "This is me." She said, motioning towards the house.

Liam looked behind him at the little cottage with beat up shutters. "If I kissed you would you freak out?" He asked, his voice quiet. Ruby barely shook her head no before his lips were on hers.

It wasn't a long kiss, but it was long enough to leave Ruby breathless.

She blinked and looked up at Liam, biting her lip. "I'll text you sometime." She squeaked out then basically ran inside, peeking back at Liam who stood and watched her, his hands in his pockets.


End file.
